The move comes in reaction to a French bill making it a crime to deny that the mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey amounted to genocide, which Turkey denies.

The other four countries involved -- Bulgaria, Romania, Austria, and Hungary -- have already approved Gaz de France's participation in the pipeline, which will carry Caspian natural gas to EU countries via Turkey and the Balkans.

(Reuters, AFP)

Examining History

CALL IT GENOCIDE? Questions surrounding the mass killings of Armenians at the beginning of the last century continue to dominate relations between Armenia and Turkey. In April,
Ankara proposed conducting a joint Armenian-Turkish investigation into the mass killings and deportations of Armenians during World War I. Turkish leaders suggested that the two countries set up a joint commission of historians to determine whether the massacres carried out between 1915 and 1917 constituted genocide. Armenia, however, insisted it would continue to seek international recognition and condemnation of what it says was a deliberate attempt at exterminating an entire people....(more)